Eternals: What is Mahd Wy'ry?

Warning! This article contains spoilers for Eternals! Read at your own risk!

The Marvel Cinematic Universe holds a lot of wonders, may it be on the heroes or villains, or just the beauty and struggles of daily life. As for the Eternals, living for more than 7,000 years on Earth, they watched civilizations grow, thrive, die, and form again before their own eyes. These memories made them see something special with the people here, however, some of them can’t remember; like how Thena is affected by the Mahd Wy’ry.

Eternals: What is Mahd Wy'ry?

Credit: Marvel Studios

Thena is known for being one of the most formidable warriors of the Eternals and she is even called the Goddess of War. She can make any weapon from her cosmic energy making her different from the others. With so many skills and feistiness, the fiery Eternal has one flaw: she suffers from Mahd Wy’ry (pronounced as “mad weary”).

In the comics, Mahd Wy’ry is explained as a defect in the creation of the Celestials from imbuing the human mind with a lot of cosmic power, and the one afflicted gets experiences and memories taking a toll on the function which drives the Eternal affected mad. In the film, it is like a version of dementia for Eternals.

As seen in the movie, her episodes of Mahd Wy’ry turn her eyes white and she says things that are beyond the comprehension of other Eternals. The first one was when she attacked the Eternals in the forest while a war ensues in the background. Upon Ajak’s diagnosis, Thena, indeed, has Mahd Wy’ry and the only cure is to wipe her memories.

Related: How Many Post-Credits Scenes are in Eternals?

Still, Thena begged for her memories to be kept as she had tons to cherish. When Ajak decided for the Eternals to be given their own separate lives, Gilgamesh vowed to look over Thena and they lived in a desert where she could not hurt anyone but him. There, Thena found a way to cope with her episodes and she started drawing.

In her illustrations, it resembles that of disasters and Celestials. When the others arrived, Thena had an episode where she kept mentioning Centauri-6. All of it made sense when Sersi got to talk to Arishem who explained that they were just robot-like constructs protecting and ensuring the emergence from happening and they only get their memories wiped after every birth of a Celestial.

Making sense, what Thena is experiencing was kind of a defective memory wipe where not all were deleted as if some remained in her subconscious and she remembers some of the other planets that they inhabited only to get destroyed by the birth of a Celestial. It means that Centauri-6 was one of those planets.

In the end, Thena remained afflicted but when it comes to saving herself from danger, she comes back to her senses as Gilgamesh taught her how to protect what she loves and to remember who she is.

See Thena in Eternals, now in theaters.